Kirsten Sheridan’s latest feature ‘August Rush’ is set to open the 16th Heartland Film Festival, USA (18 – 26 October). The fairytale drama, starring Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Elvis, The Tudors) alongside Keri Russell (Felicity), Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland) and Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting), is Sheridan’s follow up to her 2001 indie hit ‘Disco Pigs’.
The Heartland Film Festival lists sixteen titles in competition for festival prizes including Marc Forster’s ‘The Kite Runner’, Craig Gillespie's ‘Lars and the Real Girl’, Irene Taylor Brodsky's ‘Hear and Now’ and Socheata Poeuv's ‘New Year Baby’.
The 'August Rush' story follows a charismatic young Irish guitarist (Rhys Meyers) and a sheltered young cellist (Keri Russell) who have a chance encounter one magical night above New York’s Washington Square, but are soon torn apart, leaving in their wake an infant, August Rush, orphaned by circumstance. Now performing on the streets of New York and cared for by a mysterious stranger (Robin Williams), August (Freddie Highmore) uses his remarkable musical talent to seek the parents from whom he was separated at birth. Legendary composer Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, The Last Samuri, SharkTale, The Lion King) scored music for the film.
Written by ‘Hook’ writer Nick Castle, Sheridan filmed ‘August Rush’ on location in New York during March 2006. The film is scheduled for release in the USA later this year through Warner Bros.
